'It's just malpractice': Democrats paint grim picture of the state, direction of Biden's re-election campaign

With less than a year to go before Election Day, Democrats are increasingly expressing concern over President Joe Biden's campaign.

The Washington Post recently spoke with 30 members of the Democratic Party machine — elected officials, party strategists and aides, members of the Biden administration, campaign officials, and donors — who are helping Biden's re-election effort. Their candid interviews paint a grim picture of Biden's re-election hopes.

Those concerns include, according to the Post:

• the Democratic Party is putting all of its effort behind Biden's campaign with no backup plan;
• Biden's age is an albatross, and he cannot sell his "accomplishments" to voters;
• the Biden campaign is "far devoid of major events or organizing efforts";
• major Democratic donors are concerned Biden will face no competition in the primaries;
• the Biden team's bad campaign strategy has not "effectively communicated a re-election plan, a second-term governing vision, or a clear argument against Trump";
• a bad polling strategy that doesn't help the Biden campaign extract data that will help staffers improve the campaign; and
• insufficient campaign infrastructure in key battleground states.

One Democratic consultant told the Post, "The absence of polling explains stuff like 'Bidenomics.' ... It's just malpractice."

Meanwhile, a Democratic Party fundraiser said that donors are not enthusiastic about Biden's re-election prospects.

"The bad news is that everybody is wetting the bed inside of Biden world," that fundraiser told the Post. "It's really an unhappy confluence of Biden world donors' cocktail party friends saying, 'Can't you get him not to run?' — which is stupid and absurd if you know Joe Biden."

Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.), who is challenging Biden, said the metrics suggesting Biden is a bad candidate for re-election should not be ignored.

"The Democratic brand isn't the problem. It's becoming clear that President Biden is the problem," Phillips told the newspaper.

Perhaps even more concerning for Biden is that, privately, former President Barack Obama is not enthusiastic about campaigning for his old running mate, the Post suggested.

Several weeks ago, Biden campaign officials held a meeting to address concerns about the campaign. The meeting coincided with an Obama Foundation event in Chicago. One attendee who attended the off-site meeting with Biden campaign officials delivered a sobering assessment of the meeting: "The takeaway of the weekend was not, 'Hey team, we're got to get the band back together to help Biden out.'"

The White House and Biden's campaign, however, are mostly ignoring the noise and bad polls, something David Axelrod — the man who helped lead Obama's successful campaigns — is warning they should not do.

For his part, Axelrod recently assessed Biden's re-election odds at 50/50.

"I think he has a 50-50 shot here, but no better than that, maybe a little worse. He thinks he can cheat nature here, and it's really risky," Axelrod said. "They've got a real problem if they're counting on Trump to win it for them. I remember Hillary doing that, too."

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